Contents

Concerns

The department is less interested in defending US citizens than in maximising the control of the deep state forces that sustain it, and has spent a steadly larger and larger fraction of the US government's income on weapons, irrespective of the lack of real threat to the USA. It cannot be understood in isolation from the Military-industrial-congressional complex spoken about by President Eisenhower.

History

President Harry Truman signs the National Security Act Amendment of 1949

In a special message to Congress on December 19, 1945, President Harry Truman proposed creation of a unified department of state defense, citing both wasteful military spending and inter-departmental conflicts. Deliberations in Congress went on for months focusing heavily on the role of the military in society and the threat of granting too much military power to the executive.[1]

9/11

On June 1, 2001, the DoD changed the rules for military assistance relating to aircraft hijackings, the first time since 1997, to state that for all non-immediate responses, assistance from the DoD must get personal approval from the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.[2]

Criticism

In 2009, the DoD faced criticism after referring to "protest" as "low-level terrorism".[3]

The DoD has faced criticism about its program of distributing surplus military equipment to US police forces. In 2014, Los Angeles Unified school police officials returned three grenade launchers to the military, although they kept the M-16 rifles and the armored vehicle.[4]